For controlling certain installations in an automotive vehicle, in particular heating or air conditioning apparatus for the air in the passenger compartment, it is known to use control devices having a slidable member, otherwise known as sliding cursor control devices. In one device of this kind, the slidable member extends through a linear opening, or straight slot, formed in a panel such as the control panel of the particular apparatus to be controlled. The slidable member extends for example from a carrier, or cursor body, having means for guiding the cursor in linear translation movement.
Such devices are usually equipped with some form of lighting, situated behind the panel, so that the driver can see at night the different positions to which the slidable member can be moved. In order to prevent parasitic light from the lighting means escaping through the linear opening along which the cursor slides, it has been proposed that a flexible tape be provided to cover the opening in all positions of the slidable member. Such a tape allows the mechanism which would normally be visible through the opening to be hidden.
This tape does however have the disadvantage that it requires a substantial amount of free space to be provided on either side of the control panel, so as to accommodate the tape as the latter is moved along the linear opening when the cursor is moved.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,566,399, and European Patent Publication EP 0090250 A, propose ways of overcoming this disadvantage. However, these known solutions are not satisfactory, notably because the tape which covers the linear opening also sets up friction which hinders the displacement of the slidable member and renders control rather rough and uncomfortable for the operator.